Liquid developers or toners are widely known in the art and are commonly used in electrophoretic development. Electrophoretic development is a process where dispersed-charged-pigment-particles, of a toner fluid, migrate to and deposit upon an oppositely charged surface that is in contact with the toner fluid. Conventional toner fluids typically contain charge control agents and/or surfactants and finely ground pigment particles dispersed in an insulating, organic carrier liquid. The charge control agents and/or surfactants impart electrostatic charge to the pigment particles, and stabilize pigment particles to avoid flocculation.
Although conventional toner fluid compositions have been known and used for years, only recently have metallic toner fluid compositions been known in the art. A metallic toner fluid composition is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,798. This toner fluid composition comprises electrostatically-charged, colloidal, elemental-metal-particles dispersed in a nonconductive organic carrier liquid having a dielectric constant less than 3.5. A surfactant is present in this dispersion in an amount sufficient to charge and stabilize the colloidal metal dispersion. This patent also discloses a method of electrophoretically depositing the metallic toner fluid particles and a method of electroless metal plating. This patent does not, however, disclose a toner fluid composition that contains small amounts of an organosol and/or polymer other than a surfactant, and it does not disclose a method of transferring deposited metallic toner fluid materials or metal platings from a primary receiving substrate to a secondary receiving substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,321 discloses metallic toner fluid compositions and methods of transferring deposited metallic toner fluid particles and metal platings from a primary receiving substrate to a secondary receiving substrate. U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,321 does not, however, disclose that the metallic toner fluid compositions may contain small amounts of an organosol and/or a polymer other than a surfactant.